3.

A/N: I thought I wouldn't get a chapter out this weekend, but here I am!

- The flashbacks throughout the chapters aren't in chronological order.

She lingers at the door, unsure if she should retreat or march into this foreign land and own it as if it's hers, putting an air of no self-doubt as she strikes her luck with whatever this is that she has walked into. In the end, she stays where she is, waiting to be beckoned, to be summoned, play it safe for now as she does not know her place in whatever game he is playing. Whatever game he has invited her into.

She looks at where he is seated, on his throne at the end of the elongated table that rests at the far end of the vast hall. It is a wander that she didn't notice him at first glance, but perhaps she was too enamoured by the elaborate fixtures lining up the walls, or the artistic paintings draping the hall. On closer inspection, without a doubt, he is the most exquisite artwork that occupies the first room of the mansion. Even being so far from her, she can still make out the slight red glint in his onyx eyes - maybe it is just a trick of the light, but she is sure that she has observed a red gleam in his eyes before:

Sakura and Sasuke ran around their mossy rocks, jumping off logs, and making home within the sweet sounds of summer where Sasuke would kneel behind Sakura as he would braid her candyfloss hair. It was as his pudgy fingers worked their magic that she would talk his ear off, knowing this was the moment where he wouldn't interrupt her stories with his own remarks, as she knew full well without looking at him that his brows would be furrowed in concentration alongside the habit of biting the inside of his cheek.

"The girls don't pick on me anymore. My friend Ino gave them roses so they would promise to stay away - at first I was quite surprised, as Ino always told me I should just be mean back, but then I understood why Ino did that. Well I noticed when the girls started screeching. The roses had THORNS on them!" Sakura narrated as she burst into laughter at the conclusion of her short story. "You should have seen their faces! They-"

But she was cut short by an unfamiliar voice. It sounded gentle, like a lullaby. "Sasuke, there you are. You had mother worried," the older boy said, the soft cadence of his voice sending shivers down Sakura's spine.

Sasuke immediately sat up from where he was perched behind Sakura.

"Big brother!" Sasuke greeted the other boy as he dusted off the soil and grass from his shorts. "You didn't have to come looking for me, you know? I'm big enough to come here on my own, you said it yourself. Besides, I'm with Sakura."

Sasuke gestured towards herself and Sakura's eyes widened as she realised she must have just been gawking at the older boy. Sakura closed her mouth and sat up, and like Sasuke, ensured she presented herself in a well manner by dusting her pink dress off. "H-hi", a timid squeak left the girl's mouth as a slight blush formed on her cheeks at the realisation that the older boy's dark gaze - flickering with a slight deep red as it reflected the sun's rays, she bemused - had never left her form.

She still remembers the slight smirk on his face as he looked down at her and how his eyes shone with something she could not quite comprehend. Was it mischief? Amusement? She wasn't sure.

"Sakura," he greeted her, her name on his tongue seemed exotic, almost foreign. "My brother talks fondly about you. And quite often."

It was Sasuke's turn to blush as he kicked his older brother's shin. "I do not!" he denied. "Let's just take Sakura home and go..." Sasuke pouted as he led the way.

That was the first time she had met him. "Oh- okay!" Sakura squeaked as she followed Sasuke and his brother. "Nice to meet you, uh..."

"Itachi. Itachi Uchiha." The smirk still evident on his lips.

"Itachi Uchiha," she tested his name on her tongue again as if she was unsure if his presence was really situated in the same air as her. His name almost sounded like a question on her lips, he noted. "Why am I here?"

The older man chuckled at the question as he observed her, his dark eyes glazing over her as if undressing her with his very eyes. "Why are you here, indeed. Unless I am mistaken, it is you who came to me, did you not?"

Sakura's grip on the door handle tightened. She did not have enough finances to be wasting her time by dancing to the tunes of others when she could be conquering hearts and using them to fit her own will. "If you called me here to just waste my time, then I'm afraid I'll have to leave," she announces through gritted teeth. She is ready to take her leave, but it is just as she turns that she halts as she hears an amused voice ask,

"And not find out my secrets?"

Of course. Did she leave her wits at the door? Sasuke has been trying to track his brother down almost a year now, and has lost parts of himself with every year that goes by not knowing the real truths behind the demise of his family. By doing whatever Itachi bids, she could help her old friend by finding out whatever she could, with the hope to relay it back to Sasuke, wherever he was.

She turns around and faces him again. She takes a step forward. And then another.

"What do you want?" she asks, her voice curling into a snarl. "What do you know about me? And how?"

She knew she was walking into the lion's den, but what else could she do? It had just occurred to her the words of his letter,

"I am aware of your exploits."

It was imprinted on her mind now, and she would not forget again.

She waited with baited breath as she stared with determination to succeed at getting an answer at his bottomless pitch black eyes - she could no longer see the red - and the smirk which had curled onto his lips.

"I know that you want to curse the world for its unfairness. I do too. And I can help you do it. As to how I know... well, let's just say I have my own ways of getting around. I have been escaping the police and the top private investigators' interrogations for ten years now," he answered her. If she was being honest, it was more than she had expected from him, as he had always been reserved and mysterious for the couple of months she had crossed paths with him when she was a mere child.

Sakura took her time walking towards him, hoping each languid step was at least mildly intimidating as she took her place across from him on the opposing throne-like chair.

"And what would you have me do, then?"

Itachi nodded and spread one hand to gesture towards the seat she had chosen to sit at, in contrast to the more ordinary, less elaborate-designed chairs. "Take your seat beside me," he announced. "Stay with me, by my side, as we overthrow the government."

The realisation of what he was implying struck her like a chord. Her eyes dilated and his words nestled into her, prickling her skin, sending shivers down her spine like so long ago. She could feel the hammering of her heart against her chest, it was speaking to her, urging her to run! She hadn't felt fear, anxiety like this for a long time. She loved winning over hearts and then discarding them when she felt fit. She loved the adrenaline rush that overcame her when a crumpled heart could be placed on a notch on her belt. She lived on seeing the world around her burn before taking her victims' belongings as her own, whether they willingly gave it up to her, or she took it on her own accord as a prize to satiate herself.

As she focused her breathing and her hazy glimpse onto the dangerously handsome man before her, she could tell through the blur of her anxiety that he was still smirking at her, a hand resting on the back of his right hand, as he awaited her response.

"And what if I said no?" she had managed to deliver her question without a flicker of consternation.

He brought his right hand away from his face and placed it on the table, thrumming it, making a tune that only he was close enough to hear.

"What other options do you have? Surely you don't expect to go around trying to con people your whole life? People who have no direct link to the hatred that you bear for the root cause of your trepidation and hostility. Think big. Aim big. I have things against Mr. Shimura, Konoha's current President, that can tarnish his reputation for good. But as a suspected convict, I can't do it in my current state, and maybe I'll never have the opportunity. But you do. And you have the drive too," Itachi explained, still withholding some information from her, she did not fail to notice.

Sakura took a moment to weigh his words, noting how he had a point about her conning people. What had she really achieved in the last ten months? How many innocent lives had she ruined? It was not their fault that they were born into a higher position than her, just like it wasn't her fault of her social status either.

"But is tarnishing his reputation really enough?" she questioned. "Mr Shimura wasn't elected because of his popularity, that I am sure of. He has power and money. The two things that keeps you afloat in this accursed world. I'm sure his reputation is already damaged, not that anyone cares."

Itachi's eyes gleamed, and for a split second, she swore she saw red again. "I see you're not a complete stranger to how the higher-ups work," he mused, the smirk widening just a fraction was an indication that he was teasing her. "But I have dirt on Shimura that even the wealthy wouldn't be able to turn a blind eye on. We take down Shimura and his companions and his puppets, and the world will be at your very feet, Haruno."

His words intrigued her, drawing her in. She always had been a sucker for hustling her way up - not that the politics of this world allowed it- and gaining privileges - "So take my hand so nothing will seem amiss, Haruno," - and taking power away from those that had wielded and abused its power for too long.

"You can stay here as we make our plans. I assure you, you will be in no danger here."

The temptation was too much, but what else did she have?

What other choice?

"But you'll have to throw away that buzzing phone of yours," his eyes narrowed as he locked onto her shoulder bag placed around her hip that was hidden from his view.

She hadn't even noticed that it had been vibrating all this time. She took a quick glance and saw that she had numerous amounts of texts, calls, Instagram and Twitter DMs from none other than 'Naruto Uzumaki' or 'FoxyBoy', as his current Twitter and Instagram handles were. Sakura quickly took to her phone and closed her social media accounts before throwing her phone behind her. The sound of her screen smashing onto the marble tiles reverberated in her ears, but no so much as the chuckle that left the man's throat.

"So what will it be? Allow me to promise my hand to yours? Align your pain with mine and take from the world what rightfully should be ours? Be my wife? Marry me, Haruno?"

"Yes."

The answer was short and simple. But it was her closing statement on the matter.

The phrase "suspected convict" lingered in her mind, slowly unravelling things that would otherwise have remained clouded and buried. Puzzles that never fit together, that the Sasuke she remembered had time and time again had tried to piece together but lost his mind doing so, suddenly had been made clear to Sakura. The missing piece was, of a surety, the 'suspected convict'.

'If your 'pain', your 'unfairness of the world' has anything to do with Sasuke's torment of losing all his loved ones, alongside losing you - his beloved older brother... I will catch you out. I swear on my own life, I will catch you out. And bury you.'

A/N: I PROMISE you this is a SasuSaku fanfic! You'll just have to be patient with me. In due time...